


No Orange

by KitsunesKnight



Category: Tom Clancy's The Division
Genre: Death, Gun Violence, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 08:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18090920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsunesKnight/pseuds/KitsunesKnight
Summary: Alone in an unfamiliar city, in a country not their own, two siblings become trapped by an epidemic. Every Agent has a story. This is theirs.





	No Orange

It was supposed to be a Thanksgiving trip to New York see friends. It worked out, since we didn’t celebrate it at the same time anyway. Might as well get double the turkey in the year, right? Well that went to shit pretty quickly. Before my sister and I could get back on board a plane to home, it was shut down. Quarantine, they said. From what took us awhile to figure out. Some kind of smallpox outbreak. It spread fast, scarily so. Within a week the neighbourhoods were starting to fall apart, the police quickly getting overrun with looters, or crazy people on the street shouting about the end of times.

Another week later, I wasn’t so sure they were crazy. Our friends got sick. There was no room at the hospitals, even though we tried. Another week, and they were gone, still no way to get home. At least we still had a place to stay. Mom was calling us every day, making sure we weren’t sick, making sure we were still safe. The looting was getting worse, people were getting more violent, more aggressive. It wasn’t uncommon to hear gunshots throughout the day, echoing down the emptying streets.

But still no word. No call to action. We were doing everything we could to prepare, just in case. We weren’t exactly on home turf, but we were here, we were available. But we needed the call. I scavenged some rudimentary tech from a store a few blocks down, together we were able to set up some rudimentary weapons. Improvised, but useful for securing the building. Came in handy on the third week. Looters had tried to get in, but we didn’t need to fire a single shot. It ruined the front entrance as far as insulation from the cold went, but the mess might’ve been better security than the door alone ever was.

But as power went out, and without that insulation, or heat, things started getting worse quick. Still got to tell Mom we were okay though. Still here.

Still waiting.

“Yes, Mom, we are still okay. You can stop calling every day,” Cherise complained into the phone. “Yes, I understand it’s getting worse. But-” I could hear Mom yelling on the other end of the line. “Yeah okay, but we’re okay, we-”

This time Cherise wasn’t cringing, but looked confused. I straightened as she looked at her phone, before her shoulders sagged. I pulled out my own and confirmed my fear - no signal. With communications down, things were about to get worse all over again.

“Shit.”

I sighed. “Yeah, and I’m tired of waiting. People are getting hurt out there, and we’re freezing our asses off in here. We need to do something.”

“We don’t even have access to a cache, Logan. We have the handguns we lifted, and the ‘smart’ bombs and grenades,” Cherise countered.

“And the innocents out there have even less than that. Things aren’t getting better, we can’t just sit around and wait,” I insisted.

Cherise sighed. She hated when I got this way, I knew, but I also couldn’t just let it go. She knew that too. Twins were like that.

“Alright fine, I guess it’ll keep us busy if nothing else.”

With that, we packed up what supplies we could carry, deconstructed our traps, double checked our gear, and threw on our jackets.

“Please tell me you have something less obnoxious to wear,” Cherise complained, looking at my jacket.

“It’s my only winter coat!”

“It’s orange! You’ll be spotted a mile away!”

“Bah,” I waved her off as I headed out the ruined entryway of the house. “Just means it’s easier for you to flank. I’ll be fine. Besides, yours is red.”

“Yeah, dark red, unless you find some stupid street pylons or something, you stick out like a sore thumb.”

I mostly just didn’t want to give up my orange jacket. It was my favourite colour! I’d be fine.

We headed down the street, but realized quickly that navigating the city was going to be difficult. Not only were we unfamiliar with New York City, but with cell signals down and the power out, GPS was useless. We’d need a map.

“Who the hell even sells maps these days,” Cherise complained.

“Truck stops?” I suggested, knowing full well we were in the middle of a metropolitan area, not on a major highway. “Or at least a gas station? Those are at least easier to spot.”

“Like that one?”

Cherise pointed down a street to the right, where a tall sign still had its LED price display lit up, though no numbers appeared on it.

“No numbers… Must have lost power, maybe a backup generator?” I wondered out loud as we carefully made our way up to the station. “Wasn’t reconfigured then either, the question is, did they just not care, or did they not know how…”

The two of us crept up behind a car still parked on the sidewalk, with a clear view across the street at the gas station. Peeking over the hood, nothing jumped out at me right away. But then I caught movement. Two men, looking like they were patrolling the area. They were armed, but not heavily. One carried a baseball bat, the other a handgun. Then I saw what wasn’t moving.

“See the bodies?” I asked, pointing to the side of the building. “Whoever these guys are, mean business. Or at least just enough of it to kill anyone who threatens them.”

Cherise nodded before hunkering back down, double checked the chamber on her pistol, confirmed it was loaded, then looked me in the eye. “You sure you’re ready for this? We were meant to be support, not boots-on-the-ground types.”

“If these guys are killing innocents, it’s our job to help. Activated or no. We can help, so we should help,” I flicked the safety off on my own pistol. “Let’s go.”

We crept around either side of the car, and crouched behind a short cement wall lining the property of the station. I had to steady my breathing as I readjusted my grip on the handgun a few times. When I glanced at my sister, she seemed calm, ready. This wasn’t even her idea. She peeked over the wall and I took a final deep, steady breath. She came back down and pointed out the patrol’s location.

Cherise held out three fingers. Two. One.

We both came up from behind the wall, handguns leveled. _BANG-BANG, BANG-BANG._

Two shots each, both men hit the ground before they could even react. We dropped back down behind cover, peeking over just enough to see if anyone else would come out. Two more men, both with handguns, came out the front doors, scanning the area. They stuck more to cover than the other two, so it wasn’t going to be as easy to take them out. We couldn’t risk explosives around the gas station either, so flanking would be the best option. We just had to move quickly and quietly without being noticed.

“They’re over here!”

The voice came from behind us, we hadn’t noticed the four men on an outer patrol on the far side of the street. They all had handguns, and started firing at us. All our plans just went out the window as we rushed to nearby cars, splitting up. We were pinned down by bullets whizzing past our heads, or slamming into the steel frame of the cars. Thankfully, we were smarter, better trained.

Or just had better toys.

We each pulled out a small orb from our backpacks, as well as our phones. They didn’t have a cell signal, but they still had direct wireless communication. It wasn’t as fancy as the tech strapped to our backpacks that was left deactivated, but it would work. After only a couple seconds, we had the orbs rolling under the cars, across the street. Then under the cars the targets were using as cover, and with another tap.

_BOOM_

Two cars exploded as the payload inside the orbs detonated, incapacitating all four hostiles. Just in time too, as the two men from earlier vaulted over the cement wall and dove at us. I lost sight of Cherise as I engaged the man in front of me, fear in his eyes. For just a moment I wondered if they weren’t as bad as we thought, if maybe we shouldn’t have killed them, maybe they’d have been willing to talk.

He got a punch into my gut as I hesitated, and his fear turned instead to rage, and I realized I was wrong. He was only afraid of losing, but now that he had the advantage, he was fully willing to do whatever he could to secure his place in this new world. I wouldn’t let him. I dodged his next strike, grabbed his arm, broke it. Elbowed him in the bridge of his nose, sent him reeling, screaming, backwards. Raised my handgun. Two shots to the chest, and he hit the ground with a solid thud.

Cherise looked over as she finished off her own opponent, and we quickly raised our guns to survey the area once more.

Silence.

We headed inside, and as we did, took another look at the bodies along the side of the building. They were employees of the gas station, based on the uniforms. Executed, based on the bullet holes in their heads. I pushed it out of my mind as we headed inside.

There was a stand of magazines near the cashier’s counter, and among them, a tourist map of New York City.

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” I suggested, flipping through pages and the fragments of maps, labelled with street names.

“Be better with ISAC,” Cherise grumbled, tucking her own copy into her bag.

Just before she swung it onto her back once more, I saw a flash of orange, and grabbed it, stopping her.

“What-”

“Look!”

On the shoulder strap of the bag, an orange circle had lit up. I looked at mine, and it was the same. We pulled up our sleeves, and our watches glowed with the same bright orange. We grinned at each other, and dug through our bags for our communicators.

_“ISAC online.”_

The computerized voice was music to our ears, we weren’t alone anymore.

“Agents Holden are online,” I said, activating the earpiece. “We are ready to get to work.”

 _“Welcome aboard, Agents,”_ a man’s voice came from the other side. _“I know you’re a little out of your operational zone, but we could use your help. I’m Louis Chang, Northeast Section Commander of the Division. You have been activated because Brooklyn has become dangerously unstable.”_

Cherise mouthed to me _“are we in Brooklyn?”_

I shrugged.

Louis continued. _“ISAC has updated us with your location. Proceed to the nearest safehouse, and we can get you loaded up with some proper gear. Good luck, Agents, and I’ll see you soon.”_

Blessedly, with ISAC now online, we were able to pull up a fully 3D rendered representation of New York City, with our location pinpointed, displayed on high tech contacts. Even better, it gave us a direct route to the nearest safe house, near the river.

I threw my bag over my shoulder, and double checked all my equipment again. “Well, we wanted the call.”

Cherise nodded. “Let’s get moving.”


End file.
